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€0.90 WEDNESDAY EDITION WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT CITIZENSHIP FOR SALE Editorial - PAGE 11 WEDNESDAY • 13 November 2013 • issue 340 • published every wedNesday aNd suNday JURGEN BALZAN THE Labour government's first budget for 2014 had dumbfounded the Nationalist opposition after delivering what it had promised, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat declared yesterday in parliament in his reply to Opposition leader Simon Busuttil's budget reply. It was by all means, an animated and spirited performance on Muscat's behalf. Brimming with confidence, he took the Opposition to task over the profligate ways of the former administration and directly hit out at Busuttil's grasp of economic affairs, pointing out holes in his criticism of a budget that Muscat knew had been well-received. "It's a budget that proves that this government implements what it promises… and it has taken the Opposition by surprise because they normally do the opposite of what they promise," Muscat said. He used the occasion to announce a number of project not included in the budget, saying the shelved sports village at the former White Rocks complex in Pembroke would be relocated to a new site, and a fresh call for expressions of interest would be issued for the development of this prime site. Plans for the €200 million development of the former White Rocks holiday complex into a sports village fell through after talks with a UKbased company had stalled during the former administration. Muscat said that the company which was interested in the developing a sport and retail village had been told by the previous government that the project should be constructed on the prime site, only for the project to fall through. But Muscat insisted that the people knew where they stood with his government and that the country trusted his administration. "We are intent on creating wealth, jobs and economic growth…. It's a credible budget," he said, hitting out Busuttil's "inability" to grasp the finer economic aspects of the budget. CONTINUES ON PAGE 5 PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD Muscat rattles 'Humpty Dumpty' Opposition Joseph Muscat Busuttil: 'Black day for democracy' OPPOSITION leader Simon Busuttil said his party would keep up its opposition to the Individual Investor Programme, after the House passed the IIP rules that will sell Maltese citizenship for €650,000. Busuttil said the approval of the law was "a black day for democracy", saying his party had "stood firm till the very end and the government refused to seek consensus, preferring to steamroll on the opposition." Busuttil spoke shortly after Joseph Muscat replied to his budget speech, saying the PN would be challenging the forthcoming legal notice in parliament. Asked whether he would consider supporting an abrogation referendum, as Alternattiva Demokratika suggested yesterday (see page 3), Busuttil said he would not exclude anything. "Events are still developing and we do not exclude anything, including an abrogative referendum." Busuttil reiterated that he would repeal IIP passports if elected to government, and that will be publishing the names of IIP citizens using his presence in the monitoring committee that, together with the Prime Minister, will oversee the running of Identity Malta and the IIP. "As things stand, revealing the names is not illegal," Busuttil said. "It's the government's action that is devaluating citizenship." Busuttil played down the effect of Muscat's budget speech yesterday, saying the prime minister was "a good salesman but not a good statesman. It's what you come to expect of a Super One journalist, and his speech lacked substance…. "This budget does not have a serious plan for job creation and Muscat failed to answer my criticism on unemployment and the unethical actions of the police commissioner." Signed the referendum petition? Now hand it in the Abolition of Spring Hunting's petition for a referendum on Spring hunting? MaltaToday is appealing to those who first accepted our call to sign the petition to call BirdLife on 21347646 or mail the petition to 'C.A.S.H' c/o BirdLife Malta, Triq Abate Rigord, Ta' Xbiex XBX1120. It is now crucial that readers who have signed the spring hunting petition give their signatures over to the campaign. The Coalition for the Abolition of Spring Hunting's number of signatures on the petition calling for the government to hold a public referendum on the future of spring hunting passed 20,000 earlier last week. The Coalition launched the petition three months ago and gathered 10,000 signatures in the first two months. The second 10,000 signatures were collected in half that time, as the rate at which people have been signing the petition doubled in the last month. MaltaToday actively supports the coalition: the massacre of at least 12 Booted eagles – a bird whose conservation status is classified as 'of concern' in Europe, and which is certainly considered a rare visitor to Malta – was reminiscent in most respects of the many similar massacres of protected birds we have witnessed over the years. People in this country are justifiably beginning to feel betrayed and neglected by an establishment that has traditionally always been more keen to placate an unruly, disobedient and quite frankly delinquent minority, than in observing the rule of law. In between European indifference and the complicity of successive governments in an ongoing environmental crime, we are left with no option but to turn to the electorate in the hope that decency and common sense will prevail over brutish ignorance and loutish behaviour. Now that Malta's ruling political elite has washed its hands of the situation, and Europe has proved unwilling or unable to impact the situation in any way, it now falls to the ordinary voter to stand up and be counted. Justice in this issue is only a signature away. Newspaper post HAVE you signed the Coalition for

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